OpenAI Acquires Smartphone Camera Maker Glass Imaging for Over $300 Million

OpenAI has acquired Glass Imaging, a smartphone camera maker based in Los Altos, California, for more than $300 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Glass Imaging was founded in 2019 by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, former Apple engineers who led the team behind Apple's Portrait Mode. The startup had previously raised around $30 million. Rather than applying AI to edit photos after capture, Glass Imaging uses neural networks to learn the characteristics of individual camera systems across smartphone models, aiming to produce better images from the moment the shutter is pressed. Its approach is intended to address the physical size constraints of smartphone cameras.

The acquisition adds to signs that OpenAI is expanding its hardware ambitions. OpenAI has been rumored to be developing devices such as smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion devices. In 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple design chief Jony Ive revealed their work together on a device startup called io, after OpenAI acquired Ive's company for $6.5 billion.